Healthy Body, Healthy Mind – Neil Laybourn talks #MHAW15

An international team of scientists from the Universityof Adelaide and the University of Coloradohave uncovered a drug that will block addiction to morphine and heroin without affecting pain relief. “Our studies have shown conclusively that we can block addiction via the immune system of the brain, without targeting the brain’s wiring,” says the lead author of the study, Dr Mark Hutchinson, ARC Research Fellow in the University of Adelaide’s School of Medical Sciences. Basically, researchers have discovered that the drug (+)-naloxone (pronounced: PLUS nal-OX-own), created by Dr. Kenner Rice in the 1970s, selectively blocks the immune-addiction response to prevent cravings. The drug is a variant of naloxone, which is an opioid inverse antagonist used to counter the effects of opiate overdose, specifically